Interestingly, there are people who claim to have been abducted by ETs and later to have suffered missing time. Often these people - allegedly - first see an animal, often an owl or a deer. Theorists of this strange phenomenon - assuming it exists - think that ETs induce "screen memories" of animals into their victim's mind, in order to hide their own presence. So if you ever meet an animal that speaks to you - run!

It was 1985. Mullis was spending the weekend at his cabin on a tract of forested land in Mendicino County, California. He arrived about midnight on Friday, turned on the kitchen lights and put his bags of groceries on the floor, took his flashlight and headed for the outhouse. He never made it there.

“I walked down the steps, turned right, and then at the far end of the path, under a fir tree, there was something glowing. I pointed my flashlight at it anyhow. It only made it whiter where the beam landed. It seemed to be a raccoon. I wasn’t frightened. Later, I wondered if it could have been a hologram, projected from God knows where.”

The raccoon said: “Good evening, doctor.”

“The next thing I remember, it was early in the morning. I was walking along a road uphill from my house. What went through my head as I walked down toward my house was, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ I had no memory of the night before. I thought maybe I had passed out and spent the night outside. But nights are damp in the summer in Mendocino, and my clothes were dry, and they weren’t dirty.”

Time for a break. When I return, it'll be Denmark's turn, land of the four "L"s: Lager, Lego, Lurpak, and the Little Mermaid. It just doesn't get any duller. And the coin designs? I'm panicking already.